Something strange happened yesterday. NBC News reported that Israel bombed Al Shifa hospital located in the Gaza Strip only to later pull back the report based on statements from the Israeli military. Ayman Mohyeldin, an NBC reporter, claims there is video and pictures to back up the initial account that the attack on the hospital came from an Israeli drone.

Mohyeldin was the reporter that NBC removed after he reported on the deaths of the children Israel killed on the beach in a way not to the IDF’s liking. After protests were launched from the public Mohyeldin was reinstated. The removal of Mohyeldin by NBC was seen as emblematic of a pro-Israel bias NBC has repeatedly demonstrated, most recently by its flagship program, Meet The Press, which was caught promoting Israeli propaganda.

If Mohyeldin’s statements are correct, NBC News took down a report based on its own first hand accounts in favor of Israeli government statements. In other words, NBC News is not actually a news organization.

The attack, which reportedly killed 10 Palestinians, nine of them children, occurred at five P.M. The Israel Defense Forces released a statement fingering Palestinian rockets in the attack…

But NBC staff, including Ayman Mohyeldin, the reporter who was sent back to Gaza after being replaced by Richard Engel, say otherwise. “Early reports from the ground had said an Israeli drone appeared responsible for the attack,” NBC’s report on the incident now reads. (An earlier version of the same article, as captured and tweeted by a number of journalists, was more direct: “However, a NBC News journalist witnessed the attack on the hospital and said it had been fired by an Israeli drone.”)

Either there is evidence in NBC News’ possession that proves an Israeli drone was responsible for the attack, or there is not. A statement by the IDF or Hamas or whomever is secondary to that primary evidence. Or are journalists supposed to drop things down the memory hole now when they cover Israel?

The edits by NBC News on the Al Shifa hospital bombing are receiving interest because they play into a larger narrative not just about NBC but the American corporate media generally – that they are hopelessly pro-Israel to the point of journalistic paralysis. NBC and its mainstream colleagues can not move on stories because they are deathly afraid of being labeled anti-Israel. Which is fine as a corporate strategy, but don’t lie to the public and say you are reporting real news.

DS, our whole cultural mythology is based on lies and “omissions”. Lies are the mainstay of politics in the US. In fact the case could be made that the entire political structure, in the US, is comprised of lies and deceit, beginning with the absolute fiction that “the people” control the government and that the government works for the poeple.

In fact, as a for instance, some years ago the US was lied into a war in Iraq, just as it was lied into a war in Vietnam. You will note that both these lies were costly in terms of “blood and treasure” … yet you will also note that there has been no consequence for the lies … In fact, there has been NO discussion about those lies and the consequences at all.

Now who do you suppose benefits, quite royally, from these lies? Big business, of whatever stripe … as we have to assume that money, big money was “made” in those wars benefited. The political class, which includes the media, also benefits from lies. Indeed the political class has made possible, for a “cut”, no doubt, an amazing extraction of the common wealth of all USians … to the immense benefit of the financial elite … and the elites intend, with the help of the political class to bleed this society and nation dry … That is why corporations, having been “made” into “people” are now claiming that they are not subject to any national laws or taxation, because they are global actors, doing Gawd’s work and cannot be subject to ANY constrain on profit. The same applies to control, both domestically where spying and secrecy rule, governments want NO constraints on what “authority” is permitted to do, and “over there”, where violence is. often, the only “acceptable option”. Just as we see in Gaza, today.
Torture is “in”. Violence is a sacred right of the elite … to the extent that it is the essence of US foreign policy, as well.

These are all “successful” strategies … and very unlikely to change on their own. In the US, however, so long as we are allowed to vote for the lesser evil, so long as ideas beyond the legacy parties are proscribed and alternative candidates kept from debating BY the legacy parties, why DS, we have nothing to worry our pretty little heads about. Our leaders will tell us everything we need to know.

However we have to trust the political class, including the media.

Don’t you trust the people YOU elected?

Don’t you trust the exceptional US media?

Well then, if trust breaks down, in this society, it will all be YOUR fault, for pointing out things everyone else is expected to take with a grain of salt.

Don’t you grasp this whole “exceptional” thing.

Truth is ugly but lies are nice.

Quite a Propaganda Machine we got, wouldn’t ya say? One of the very biggest ever … another one of them complexes like the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex. (Ole Ike had ta change the name, ‘cuz Congress got all huffy … kinda like the news is changed to keep certain people happy.

Ain’t you happy?

Well, ya better get with thew program, ‘cuz otherwise you’ll find the “official” line on many things to be increasingly galling and unsettling.

Trust me.

Lies are the lesser evil. That’s why they say, sometimes, “the truth hurts”. And we don’t want that, do we?

DSW says
Which is fine as a corporate strategy, but don’t lie to the public and say you are reporting real news.

could not have said it better!

the USA corporate media reporters seldom call GAZA an occupied territory or an open air prison. However everyone else does.

the USA corporate media never covered the following story? US Govt. supports Israel and Ignores Detroit?

“US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Israel urgently needs more financial aid from the United States for its offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

On Monday afternoon, Reid, a member of the Democratic Party, warned that the Obama administration’s $225 million request to aid Israel during its current war may not be enough, as the Zionist regime continues to massacre Palestinians in Gaza.”

Idiots? Perhaps a large number of people are ignorant or trained to accept the corporate media message as the truth. But there is a big divide between the ruling class and the vast majority of people who are irrelevant. Their opinions mean nothing. Their ire is laughable. The American people are like an abused spouse that knows the current abuse is all there is and all there will ever be.

News organizations have to be very careful about making claims like this which are disputed. They have to be 100% certain they are right. Maybe, they didn’t feel they have that level of certainty. Maybe, they are reviewing the evidence.

The U.S. public accepts the lies of the corporate media because they have been swimming in the lies for so long that is all they know. There are no alternatives. I’m fortunate enough to follow French media and although not perfect they do a far better job of reporting the news and providing alternative narratives.

That’s understandable. After all, how can NBC trust its own video and photos? A very slippery slope, if you ask me. On the other hand, David Gregory can solicit comments from one of his guests for a video the guest couldn’t see that purported (by the Israeli government) to show weapons fire emanating from a Palestinian hospital that Israel was trying to justify bombing. That’s real journalism, as practiced by the National Broadcasting Corporation.

Laughable. They preferred an IDF statement to the testimony of their own reporter. This quite obviously isn’t about accuracy, is it?

I guess this whole rigorous review of evidence thing is why NBC is so patient about reporting every new form assumed by Israel’s shape-shifting propaganda. We’re only defending ourselves! Tunnels are why we must bomb! Those kids are human shields! Rockets fell short and hit that school/hospital/shelter!

As DSW points out pesky is a regular on Ukraine threads, where s/he has demonstrated a breathtaking refusal to confront reality when it doesn’t fit his/her preferred narrative.

DSWright said something incredibly insightful there: in fact, NBC “news” [sic] is not a news organization; it’s a propaganda arm of the government and the various corporations that own the government. Good call.

CBS Evening News last night had an amazing and shocking segment in that hospital and where the Israeli missle landed of bloodied dead and dying children and babies, dads holding the limp bodies of their sons, and grieving mothers and relatives with NONE of the usual “it’s both side’s fault” BS. My jaw dropped the whole time. GOOD ON YOU CBS! Did anyone else here see that segment?

Richard Engel is the reporter NBC sent in after they pulled Ayman Mohyeldin out. I figured that he would more reliably parrot the official line, but his tweets from Gaza have been very good. He is reporting what he’s been seeing (though I suspect little of it is showing up on air). He speaks Arabic, so NBC messed up; when you really want the official line you just need to send a reporter who only speaks English (which is why otherwise progressive British reporters get the impression that most Venezuelans were against Chavez, they could only talk to the English-speaking upper classes).

Turns out the four boys on the Gaza beach were hit by a “Spike” missile, which has a camera in its nose (which could have diverted or aborted the strike on the boys if the Israelis had not been intent on murder). I suspect the “drone” observed in the attack on Al-Shifa yesterday was also a Spike missile. Which would mean that that attack could also have been aborted.

Obviously reprehensible behavior on the part of NBC, but at least the actions of Ayman Mohyeldin tell us that there are some, (or is that just one?), good men working for the msm. I still find it beyond belief how far the msm is oft prepared to go in order to obscure what is most likely the truth in order to promote pure government propaganda.

I really don’t think I posted anything on this thread which was discourteous or trollish in any way. I’ve abided by the moderation rules. You don’t like long dissertations, in fact you delete them, so I’ve modified my writing style to suit your preference. Now, I just write short comments.

I can only speculate that you don’t like to be disagreed with. But, it’s only speculation since you refuse to tell me what it is I’ve done wrong.

“Chossudovsky, Lehmann and other analysts who have followed the situation in the Ukraine closely, repeatedly pointed out that the west supports Neo-Nazis and fascists in the Ukraine as vanguard, as Chossudovsky puts it, or as storm troopers, as Lehmann puts it, for the “opposition”, while marketing the violence, as protests for freedom and democracy.”

I guess folks didn’t get my point, which is perhaps why some of you thought I was trolling.

My point is that I don’t think you can necessarily identify who launched a rocket attack with photos or videos of the attack itself. I mean, we’re talking about photos or videos of a building being hit, right? So, you might be able to say who launched the attack, if you had a security expert that could ascertain that only one side or another could have used such-and-such weapon, which was obviously used, given the information contained in the photo/video.

But, I could easily imagine that NBC does not want to stake its reputation on who launched the attack, because they’re not 100% sure from the evidence they have, where the rockets came from. They might strongly suspect IDF, but if they’re not really really sure, they’re better off reporting “he said/she said”.

If they could get an expert to weigh in on it, that would be the best way to go.

It’s also possible that someone highly placed in NBC quashed the story. I’m in no position to say what really happen. All we can really do is speculate.